OhGodtheRats

Suspense!

(And jealousy, because from what I've read already the event was a pretty smooth success)

Oh dear God, this is exactly why I can't PVP very well. The HELL can you do against that? Besides hope he doesn't come after you again?
-jared

Um...look at the number of powers available. Is the Touch of Death IO available before level 10 or so?
-jared

I'm not sure if this would or would not be a good or very sad use of my film school graduation. Though I am looking forward to this. I've been bitter towards fan-movies/trailers ever since the He-man competition got cancelled a couple years back after I worked my [censored] off and spent far too much money/studio time animating MoTU characters on the Real World set.
:sigh:

Keep us posted.

If I wasn't already suckered into two theme-teams (and already abandoned a third) that meet regularly on Monday and Tuesday, I'd totally be up for this. Because I'm addicted to regular teams. I'd love for you to keep us posted on your progress/plans for this...I think someone's already said that, but it deserves repetition.
-jared

I always heard that SS/Inv was the most endurance-hungry build for a brute right after Stone/Inv. If thsoe rumours are true, I'd totally go the endurance reduction route.

I think it depends on your build, and what level you're at. My Dark/Dark Brute slots very differently than a Stone/Invulnerable one. At lower levels I just slot crazily for endurance reduction, but once a few signature powers show up I set up my "real" slotting. If your build has a Endurance replenisher, I'd totally focus on Recharge for those attacks since you'll be able to spam pretty freely. If your build doesn't, I'd say focus on Endurance Reduction. Also if your attacks are expensive on Endurance, you really don't want them to miss...so double slotting accuracy couldn't hurt. I only single-slot mine, but they're cheap and, well, it doesn't hurt me to miss now and again.

Of course I don't slot any of attacks for damage. Between Fury and Build-Up powers (Soul Drain in my case) enhancing my damage just seemed....unnecessary.

Hey...I LIKE the Duel Culture scene going on on Union. It's a nice break from the general gankage and spite I run across while patrolling the PVP zones.

But yeah, good job there War. People who complain about enemies hiding in the base but then do the same thing themselves is a pet peeve of mine. Of course, considering how most of the PVP in warburg happens in SIGHT of the hero's ship....it just tends to happen way more than it should.
-jared

Ah, the joys of weird builds. I can't wait for Motion Blur to post his Melee-Combat Kinetic Corruptor's.

On the subject of leeching...as long as people see you working and taking risks, it won't come up. From level 1-26 there was only one person who had a problem with my petless build---Of course this has to do with being the Ironman Psycho. You're the squishiest of all the AT's so you HAVE to be smarter than everyone else. Or you'll be dead. Very quickly. I'd recommend Dark or Trick Arrow...both of which are flashy and have obvious effects that your teammates can see in action.

You'll need Stamina, too. Since your attacks are low-damage anyway, you'll be spamming them like a fiend. And Chance of Damage IO's are going to be your best friend as the damage they do will be higher than the base damage of your attack.

Ok Negative Nancy, you're officially all over the place. I'll stop asking stupid questions, and leave you alone to your sorrow.

Have you tried a spirit tree?

SO just to play devil's advocate for a second, what would make you happy?

I10 has a new Task force, several new story arcs (5 new contacts to get missions from in the Rikti War zone), new costume pieces, a whole new ZONE for level 50 characters to explore....a zone where they can also team with the "enemy" (heroes/villains depending). From what I see, it's a lot of content...which begs the question:
If it's not more content for level 50 players, what DO you want?

I'm just going to call you Negative Nancy and ask why this wasn't put in the suggestion section of the forum. You know, because this rant has gone WAAAAY beyond the scope of hanging out on the Union server.
-jared

PS: I've been playing for 6 months and I honestly can say I don't see what you're talking about. Whatever Cryptic did to "Drop the ball" or "screw up their game completely" or "ignore the pleas of the community" a year (or years ago) isn't affecting new players like myself, as far as I can see.

Edit: Damn it, Why was I baited into posting? No good will come from this conversation, I already know that.

As a Dark/Dark Brute, enemy mobs are the only safe place I have to run to when PVP isn't going well. You know, because my big self-heal and self-Endurance Recharger are both based off of Mob Sized. Plus other players look at you like you're crazy when you escape them by jumping in to a 5-6 strong mob of Shivans. But for some builds, it's the safest place in the world.

And yeah, I second "remove the Players" from the zones. I love Warburg but I've never ever completed the damn "main" mission there due to PVP trickery. I'd like to see that damn rocket launch at least once in my CoV life.

Couple of things:

I'm NOT a huge fan of Poison Gas arrow...as the effect fades very quickly and the "sleep" aspect of the power only came into play for my Ninja/Trick Arrow MM once despite using it for a very long time. It's not a bad debuff...but for 20 seconds of a mob doing 15% less damage....it depends. In epic-sized mobs that would be a life saver. But for your most endurance hungry Trick Arrow attack until you get Disruption...I didn't find it worthwhile.

Oh and Sin is awesome, but I disagree about Flash arrow (because my Mastermind lives and dies by it). The Accuracy debuff is pathetic but the perception debuff means that this power is one of the best pulling tools in the game. If you think you'll be pulling enemies from mobs on a regular basis, I'd totally suggest keeping it in. If you don't care about pullling, then he's right: Ditch it and get Aid Other/Self or something. Of course, considering the fact that you've chosen NO ranged attacks of your own, I'm thinking you won't be able to pull on your own very well. So yeah, drop Flash Arrow. It's an awesome power but if your only ranged attack is your origin Tranq Dart (or whatever) then it might not be for you.

Lastly, I'd forget about slotting Entangling Arrow for Immob Duration, only because the power recharges so quickly on its own already and it'd be easier to just re-apply it when needed. Which means now you can put those slots in Glue Arrow...which is one of the big stars of the Trick Arrow set. Seriously, that power alone will keep you alive when things get rough.

-jared

I wouldn't say "highly stupid" mostly because setting the game on "super difficult" mode shouldn't be something requiring a lack of intelligence. So um yeah. Your momma, previous poster.
Of course I'm biased because I played a Petless Mastermind up to level 26 before snagging my first pet (Ninjas/Trick Arrow).
Link to the Thread with far too much talk about going Petless (Check page 2 and beyond if memory serves)
So yes, it's totally possible...and a lot of fun. Even though a lot of people will look at you like you're insane. You know, because it's like playing Super Mario Brothers and saying "I'm not going to get any mushrooms". But know that a fair amount of people have given this a try. I know maybe a dozen on Union and there's apparently a LOT of folks who tried this out on the US servers.

Also I'm not sure that Forcefields is the best secondary for an Ironman Mastermind. Unless you plan on teaming all the time. Without pets you can solo, but it might require a more "direct" Secondary. The best may be Dark because of its lvl 1 healing....but I'm thinking any of them could work if you're crafty. Trick Arrow is my personal favorite, but again, I'm biased.

Oh and Thugs without pets? Congratulations. You get to wield the dual pistols that look cool without those annoying punks stinking up the joint.
Good luck (if you decide to do this).
-jared

I'm just curious....why the Tactics grab so late in the game? I've never gotten a toon that high so I'm just curious if suddenly only "slightly" stealthed enemies start showing up all over the place or something.
-jared

Oh dear God, I forgot about the Accuracy set bonus thing. I'd still throw at least one in there. My Dom has a 36% accuracy bonus to all powers and has TP slotted with accuracy (once) and I still miss far more often than I would like. Then again, maybe I need to stop targetting the Dodge-crazy Scrapper so often. I'm not sure.

Oh and damn you. Now I have to hold onto that Decimation: Chance for Build up on my brute until level 41 when he gets a Ranged Patron power attack. I wasn't even THINKING of patron powers until you said that. Damn it.
-jared

Of course, just to play devil's advocate a second, a couple of those rare things that give repel protection are toggles. Toggle-dropping goes both ways as I can still repel the INV Brute/Tanker with a well placed Sleep, Stun, or just plain Dominator detoggler. So even if you build your character to stand up to Repel Doom, it's not always going to be foolproof. You know, like most things in PVP.

Hate to say it but the sneaky PVP trick here is to most likely bring a friend. If they've built their toon around the Repel theme, that may be your only bet.
Once you get under the effect of repel, there's not a lot you can do about it. My Mind Dom loves him some Telekinesis as once it has you it really doesn't end until I run out of endurance. That said, I have seen people totally ninja-woop me by bringing 4+ Break Frees to the party. After that happened I was a lot less brave when they ran past my hiding place in Warburg.
For what its worth I don't go into Warburg without a handful of them myself. It only takes one controller holding you to death before you realize that whole thing could have been avoided.

Wait, what am I saying? 4 Inspirations will only help you for a short time. Considering how it might take more, I'm going to fall back on my original suggestion: Bring a friend.
-jared

Two things:
1: Have you respec'd already? And if so where are you going to put that Decimation: Chance for Build up...if anywhere? Is Aimed Shot vital to you (I think it is, I've seen you pull)...if it wasn't I'd snag the quick shot and put the Decimation there for spammage. Wait....you're a trapper and a mastermind. How does Build-up help you? I'm sure it does but it just occurred to me I'm unclear how it would exactly.

2: That slot from Tactics that I mentioned this morning? I'd totally move it over to Teleport Foe if you really want to play with it. Billy has that ability and he's got it slotted for Accuracy and it still misses like a blind drunk playing basketball in the dark. When it works...it's awesome though. Next time I respec I'm thinking of fully slotting it just so I can throw in a bunch of range and recharge in there as well. But it needs slotting to rock in the way you want it to.

See you soon, with candy.
-jared

Hey Stranger. Let us know what your Global is or at least what your character names is (Sisc0?). I'm sure there are people floating around who can help you out...we just don't know how to contact you on the Rogue Isle with what the info you've given us.

oh and hi!
-jared

I think you're being dyslexic. The other guy was Ninja Nobby.

And I am jinxed in regard to respec missions...because I'm not going to be able to be on time tonight. I'm still totally up for tomorrow's Dom night, but Trapper night is again jinxed.

Copied from the All-Dom thread since it applies:

Well hey...wasn't it your idea that we do the respec missions this week with the theme teams? If you need the respec (on your trapper or your dom) maybe we should just do a Strike Force instead (because I'm totally psyched up to do something epic with the themes this week) and save the Respec Trial for when you get back?
I'd still love to do something more than normal missions this weeks since I've been looking forward to it, but I think a Strike Force would be a fine compromise if you NEED to Respec and can't make it.

Just a thought.
-jared

: pokes thread :

Tonights the Night for Vines!
:dread:

[ QUOTE ]

In a tightly controlled team, on flat surfaces, against non-flying non teleporting toons, with none of your team using knockback or fear/scatter powers, with no ambushes, patrols or accidently aggro'd second spawns, then teleport will almost always compensate for granites lack of mobility.

[/ QUOTE ]
O_O
Ok, I get your point. My own experiences say you must be exagerating just a wee bit though. Mostly because you're saying that it NEVER works unless everything is perfect...and some of the things you listed are problems for almost ALL brute builds.
I have teleporting Granite friends who swear by it....but maybe I used the word "annihilate" a little too loosely. I still haven't seen a better solution to staying in Granite form for an entire mission (besides taking a long time).
-jared